A 1979 American drama film directed by Lewis John Carlino which has a young man (Michael O'Keefe) struggling to win the approval of his Marine pilot father (Robert Duvall) in early-'60s South Carolina.
The film's supporting cast includes Blythe Danner, Stan Shaw, Brian Andrews, Paul Gleason, Julie Anne Haddock, David Keith, Paul Mantee, Theresa Merritt, Lisa Jane Persky, and Michael Strong. Both Duvall and O'Keefe earned Academy Award nominations for their performances.
It was released on October 26, 1979.
Tropes for the film:
- Alliterative Name: Matthew Meechum.
- Attack Hello: The title character does this to a fellow officer.
- The Film of the Book: Based on the 1976 novel of the same name by Pat Conroy.
- Tagline: "The bravest thing he would ever do was let his family love him".
- Taking You with Me: Gentle and kindly Toomer is shot by Red, a racist redneck who'd been harassing him for his entire life. Toomer, knowing he's dying, gets payback for a lifetime of harassment by stumbling to his front door and opening it just before passing out from blood loss. He wasn't trying to get help, he opened the door to release his pack of extremely vicious dogs. Said dogs proceed to rip Red to pieces. Red's face, when he sees Toomer stumbling to the door and knows exactly what's about to happen, is nothing but pure Oh, Crap!. He knows he's a dead man.
